The Survival Games
by Stormpixel
Summary: The Survival Games. A sealed fate and sure death for many of the Village tributes who are sure to be chosen. However, when one teenager, Kyran Versten of Village Seven, is selected to act as the male tribute for his Village, will he act as expected? Will he follow the directions of his mentors? Follow Kyran's journey through dangers and perils, both within and outside the Games.


**The Survival Games**

**Summary: The Survival Games. A sealed fate and sure death for many of the Village tributes who are sure to be chosen. However, when one teenager, Kyran Versten of Village Seven, is selected to act as the male tribute for his Village, will he act as the Administrators expect him to? Will he obey the directions of his mentors? What will become of his Village acquaintance in the Games? Follow Kyran's journey through dangers and perils, both within the Games and outside of them.**

**Disclaimer: This story is based off of Suzanne Collins' trilogy **_**The Hunger Games**_**. I do not own any of the three books nor the movie. This story is also based off of the popular sandbox game Minecraft. I do not own the game either; Mojang does.**

**Author's Note: I wrote this story because of my love of Minecraft and the Hunger Games. **_**The Survival **_**Games is the result of hours of work, and a lot of thought and imagination has gone into this. Remember to leave a review, and criticism is always welcomed! (Note: I love getting into the explanation of concepts in my stories, and sometimes I'll get a little off-topic or stray away from the main storyline while describing stuff. I hope to fix this in the future )**

**This story is rated "T" for "Teen". Although I'm sure most of you guys love battles and fighting, if there are any of you who dislike mass killing (trust me, there is a LOT of death in this), turn away now.**

**Chapter Summary: A young teenager, Kyran Versten, must endure the anxiety of the Choosing, the selection of Village tributes to participate in the Survival Games. Will he be chosen?**

**Chapter Note: The first couple of chapters pretty much consist of introduction to the story's principles, characters, and main plot (the core of the plot won't be revealed until somewhere around Chapter Six or Seven, even though the basis of the plot will be blatantly obvious throughout the next few chapters). So even though the first through third chapters may seem a tad bit excessive on explanation and description, this will be slowly weeded out over the course of the following chapters. In addition to that, most chapters will be around 2,000 words long, with an absolute minimum of 1,000 words. Therefore, those of you who love to read should feel right at home! To those of you who either dislike or downright hate reading, don't leave just yet! Peruse the story first!**

**Enjoy the first chapter!**

My name is Kyran; Kyran Avenjek Versten, seventeen. My name may seem like a tongue-twister to most foreigners, but I live with it. In Village Seven, names are generally confusing anyways.

I wake up to the sound of knocking on the door. Yawning, I kick the covers off my bed and make my way down the stairs. I'm one of the lucky ones in Village Seven; most live in small huts, hovels, and at the best, cramped two-room houses. Others are forced to live on the streets or make do with small lean-tos propped up against the village wall. Two-story or brick houses are considered as "homes of the wealthy"; only those coming from well-to-do families own one. If you don't come from a wealthy family, the only other way to acquire one is by winning the Survival Games. It doesn't make matters any better that all of these "god homes" are clustered together on this large hill, located on the far northern side of the village. "Rich Man's Hill", it's called.

I don't come from a wealthy family; heck, I don't even live in one! My brother, Kevrai, won the Survival Games three years ago, at the age of fifteen. Our entire family was given this house as an award, along with quite a sum of cash. Then, disaster struck. My father and my brother had enlisted with an expedition group. They prepared their supplies and left. A week later, my mother and I received a knock at the door. We opened the door to admit a suited man. He broke the news to us: my father and Kevrai had been killed in a forest, far from Village Seven. We were devastated, but it hit my mother the worst. She entered a severe state of depression, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink. She rarely came out of her room on the second floor. I tried to help her, but she was beyond aid. Eventually, I found her lying still as stone in her bed. Dead.

I became sole house-owner, a title which I still despise to this day. By rights, I shouldn't even be living in this house. It belongs to my brother, and his memory. But the mayor of Village Seven, a rather uncaring and ignorant man named Burlus Feerath, prefers practicality over morality and his statement is pretty much, "You live in the house or you get out. End of story."

So I went down the stairs and opened the door to find my friend, Trekret Wyler, standing there in blue-and-red-dyed leather. His hair, which is usually tousled and at all angles, was swept to the side. It wasn't parted perfectly like those Nexus people we see on TV, but for Trek, it was considered "handsome" and "businesslike".

"What brings you here?" I asked my friend.

"Dude, get dressed, quickly! The Choosing is today!"

"Damn, I forgot!"

"Well, then go, get yourself dressed, fast! It's being held in two hours! Meet me at my house once you're finished."

Man, I _completely_ forgot that the Choosing was being held today! Quick as a spider, I rushed up to my room, threw open my clothes chest, and rummaged around for something good I could wear.

The Choosing is a ceremony held every Spring and Autumn of each year. This event selects the tributes from each Village who will be entered into the Survival Games. Citizens and children under eighteen years old in every Village have their names written on slips of paper and entered into two dispensers, one for males and one for females. Some Nexus representative comes to the villages and takes out a single slip from each dispenser: the female tribute and the male tribute of the Village. Then, they have one day for farewells to the members of their Village.

In some villages, the children and citizens there train and practice year-round for the Games. Many even volunteer beforehand to become their Village's tribute. Those are the wealthy villages; they get "special treatment" from the Nexus either because of their production type or simply because the Nexus chooses to favoritize them.

"Ah…" I had found one of my newer leather suits: a set of black-and-green dyed leather. I threw it on and adjusted a couple of things. Then, I went to the village well outside and took a bucket of water. Wetting my hair, I swept it to the side much like Trek's. Then I left the bucket in my house and went to Trek's house.

Trek lives with his parents, like much of the rest of the teens in Village Seven do. His mother, Tracey, makes money for the family as a foodhouse owner. Her husband, Andor, makes a living in the ironwork forges and smithies scattered around this part of town. The family is large. In addition to his mother and father, Trek resides with his twelve-year-old brother, Darrion, and his two sisters, fifteen-year-old Karissa and fourteen-year-old Castalia.

I reach Trek's house and knock on the door, which opens almost immediately after, revealing a tired-looking Castalia.

"Hi Kyran," she murmurs, and holds the door open for me to enter. I wave her off.

"You're looking exhausted, Castalia. Go take a rest somewhere. Are you alright?"

"It's just the…the Choosing…" she breaks off.

I nod; I felt much the same way when I was her age. Imagine, one day, waking up and realizing that that is the day you may be selected to go to the Survival Games. Straight to certain death. How can one sleep with that on their mind? "Don't worry about it. After all, you don't have much of a chance of being chosen."

The selection of names from the Choosing is peculiar. The youngest that can enter are those eleven years old. At that age, you must enter your name once. You name is entered three times more after each year, so at twelve, you have your name entered four times, at thirteen, seven times, and so on.

However, if you and/or your family is in need of food or supplies, you can enter your name once more in exchange for sixteen wood planks and a pack of eight raw beef. You can enter your name as many times as you want in exchange for these supplies. Since I'm pretty much wealthy already, with no need for extra supplies, I enter my name in five extra times for Trek's family. Trek himself enters his name in five extra times as well, so in total, each spring and autumn, his family earns one hundred and sixty planks and eighty beef. It's just enough to support them until the next Choosing, and then we repeat the process again. It's a pretty solid strategy, and we each have an equal chance of being selected.

I walk into the house to find Trek nowhere in sight. Tracey comes out from the cooking-room. "He's out back," she tells me, then disappears out the front door.

"Thanks," I call after her, and I make my way into the yard. Most families don't own a yard, much less a cooking-room, but because of Tracey's job as a foodhouse owner and Andor's position as an ironworker, they make a good sum of money.

I find Trek out in the yard, leaning against a fence-pole, looking off into the distance. He waves me over and I walk over to lean against an adjacent fence. "Something on your mind?" I ask him.

He sighs. "I wonder who'll get chosen this spring. Last time, our tributes didn't even survive the massacre at the Centre."

"Well, whoever it may be this time, let's hope old Cyrek and Lenora actually teach them something." Each year, the tributes chosen are trained by former Village victors. Seven has only ever won three times, and two remain: Lenora Romanos and Cyrek Vallis.

Lenora won eight years ago, at the age of fifteen. She's an extremely talented engineer: the year she won, she constructed an oversize projectile launcher out of stone. She constructed it in such a way so that it could fire TNT. When deathmatch began and everyone was teleported to the Centre, she ran into the trees before anyone could catch a glimpse of her and set up her cannon. All it took was a single TNT and she won the Games.

No-one remembers how Cyrek took the crown. His victory took place forty-seven years ago, long before I was born. I've talked to a couple of people sometimes, when I go to the market to buy supplies, but nobody seems to remember exactly how Cyrek won the Games.

Trekret opens his mouth to say something, but as he does so, the town hall's bell rings. _Bong-bong-bong-bang-bong_.

"That's the bell," I mutter. "Let's get to the square." I dash through the main room of the house and out the front door. I don't wait for Trek; he will go with his family, as will the other potential tributes. I don't have a family to endure the Choosing with.

As I make my way to the town square, I notice that I'm one of the first ones to arrive. This isn't surprising; after all, the others' families would have preparations to make. I wait for a few minutes, then there's a sudden influx of people flooding into the square. As a "richman", there is an area reserved for me, close to the town hall. But I don't stand there; I prefer to live through the Choosing without having everyone look my way with evil-eyes.

While looking around, I watch Trek and his family enter the town square. He catches my eye and gives me a halfhearted grin. I wave in response, and then turn back to the hall. As the last few families trudge into the square, Mayor Feerath stands up at the podium set in front of the hall. He adjusts the microphone, then begins speaking.

"As you all know, today is a very special day." His deep voice sounds around the square. "For it is not only the first day of spring…" he pauses for effect. It doesn't work. "But is also…the first Choosing ceremony of this year!" The crowd mutters. "Let us welcome Village Seven's representative, The Blue Monkey!"

There are a lot of collective gasps around the square, and then the cheering starts. Nexus people are generally disliked at best by the villages, what with their life of luxury and fancy gadgets and whatnot. However, there are a couple of exceptions, such as Blue Monkey.

Blue Monkey's real name is James. He's well known around the world for his movies, especially his mini-movie series, _The Life of Steve_. He's been a Nexus representative for Villages Two and Five, and each time he's represented a Village for the Nexus, that Village manages to win the Games. There's actually a rumor that he has some kind of magical power or aura. Bogus. But it does make you wonder how good of a representative he is.

Representatives are responsible for gathering sponsors for their represented Village. Sponsors have the power to purchase items and supplies and send them to their respective tribute. Generally, those tributes with rich or wealthy sponsors earn the best items. There was one year when a Village Three tribute was sent an enchanted iron sword with Sharpness I. That particular Games lasted for only four days.

I've watched both videos of the Games in which Blue Monkey acted as representative. The most recent one I can remember watching, a few months ago, was his representation for Village Two. Three weeks had passed after the start of the Games, and the male tribute for Two had been killed. The female tribute, Kaylee McCander, was stuck in this enormous forest. I can remember her screaming at the audience, at Blue Monkey, _where are you! Help me!_ This went on for four days. Then, at the end of the third week, she received a sponsor crate. Opening it, she took out the items inside.

One full set of iron armor. A stack of sixty-four steaks. Eight golden apples. And, last of all, an iron sword enchanted with Sharpness I and Fire Aspect I. She immediately went on the hunt for the remaining players. Marking the beginning of the fourth week, deathmatch began. I had never seen a quicker deathmatch.

It was that game which showcased Blue Monkey's representative talent. Since then, he has been regarded as somewhat of a celebrity.

The mayor waited patiently for the cheering and yelling to die down, then he began speaking again. "Let's hope this year, we have a solid chance of winning!" This starts the crowd cheering again, but it's not directed towards the mayor, but Blue Monkey. Adoration at its finest. "And now, for the selection of Village Seven's tributes for this spring's Survival Games! First, the male tribute…" Mayor Feerath steps aside to allow Blue Monkey access to the two dispenser buttons. There is silence as the Nexan walks over to the dispensers, rubs his hands, then presses on of the buttons. _Click!_ A small sheet of paper pops out, and, retrieving it, he reads out the name on the paper.

"Kyran Versten."

Damn.


End file.
